Feds: Murtha-connected defense contractor exec took kickbacks

The former chief executive for a defense contractor with ties to Democratic U.S. Rep. John Murtha has been charged by federal prosecutors with taking about $200,000 in kickbacks from a subcontractor.

Richard S. Ianieri, of Doylestown, was charged in a one-count criminal information filed Monday in Pittsburgh. He is accused of accepting two kickbacks of about $100,000 each from a subcontractor — identified only as “K” — while he was an officer of Coherent Systems International Corp.

In an April 2006 news release, Murtha announced that Coherent and Kuchera Defense Systems were working “virtually as one company” on 14 contracts worth $30 million to develop high-tech military gear. At the time, both companies had offices in Windber, near Murtha’s home base of Johnstown.

Kuchera, which has given ten of thousands of dollars to Murtha’s campaign and political action committee, has been under scrutiny in recent months….